Combining method of wax patterns for fabricating golf club head

ABSTRACT

A combing method of wax patterns for fabricating a golf club head is provided in the present invention. Firstly, a golf club head is disassembled to two or more elements in advance, which are respectively formed into wax patterns. Next, a flange capable of being deformed upon being pressed under an appropriate temperature and a corresponding rabbet structure are predisposed on the two wax patterns, then, the temperature of the flange is raised to make it soften, and then, it is pressed into the rabbet by a flattening tool. By utilizing the softening characteristic of the wax upon being heated, the joint surfaces of the two wax patterns are melted into a single wax pattern. By the method, the two wax patterns are combined together without adding a medium there-between, and thereby forming a joint surface with no gaps.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This non-provisional application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(a)on Patent Application No(s). 095124040 filed in Taiwan, R.O.C. on Jun.30, 2006, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated byreference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of Invention

The present invention relates to a combing method of wax patterns forfabricating a golf club head, and more particularly, to a combing methodof forming a tightly combined wax pattern with no gaps on joint surfacesof the two wax patterns.

2. Related Art

A method of directly combining two wax patterns to form a golf club headis disclosed in the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 6,739,376 of theapplicant, wherein the technique of combining the two wax patterns isnot further disclosed. Moreover, in the specifications of U.S. Pat. No.6,971,436, U.S. 20050224207, and U.S. 20050034834, it is disclosed thatresin, hot melt glue, methyl cyanoacrylate, ethyl cyanoacrylate, othersuitable adhesive and a mixture thereof are used as a medium to combinethe two wax patterns, so as to melt the wax pattern to form a cavitymold after the ceramic shell has been fabricated subsequently, which isuseful for the casting process. During the process of wax combining; thechemical molecules of the medium is not similar to that of the wax, sothe medium is easily mixed into the wax liquid after de-waxing, andthereby polluting the wax liquid of the circulating system. Furthermore,using the wax liquid for combination easily results in the unevenness ofthe joint surface due to the adhesion of wax liquid, and a process offlattening by using an organic solution is additionally required. Duringthe process of flattening by using the organic solution, the organicsolution may also contact the element body, and thereby destroying thesurface of the body and damaging the original shape of the body. Inaddition, using the organic solution results in the air pollution andharming of the respiratory tract of the operator.

Furthermore, none of the wax pattern combining techniques disclosedabove can make the joint surfaces of the two wax patterns form a onepiece structure without any gap, the flattening operation on the jointparts is additionally required, and it cannot be performed during thecombining process.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The problem to be solved in the present invention is to provide a methodof combining two wax patterns without any medium being addedadditionally during the combining process. In addition, the jointsurface is flattened, and furthermore, a single wax pattern without anygap on the joint surface is formed after combining.

In order to solve the above problem, the present invention provides acombing method of wax patterns for fabricating a golf club head, whichincludes the following steps. Firstly, a first prefabricated wax patternand a second prefabricated wax pattern are provided, wherein the firstwax pattern has a recess portion for the second wax pattern to beembedded therein; a flange is formed on at least one edge of the recessportion; and the second wax pattern has a combining portion with a shapecorresponding to that of the recess portion, and a rabbet with a shapecorresponding to that of the flange is disposed at an opposite positioncorresponding to the flange. Next, the first wax pattern and the secondwax pattern are embedded correspondingly. Then, the temperature of theflange is raised to make the flange soften, and then, a flattening toolis used to guide the flange into the rabbet, thus, joint surfaces of thefirst wax pattern and the second wax pattern are tightly combinedtogether without any gap, and thereby forming a single wax pattern.

A further improvement of the present invention lies is that, a heatedflattening tool, for example, a flattening plate or a flattening rod isused to directly heat the flange, so as to soften the flange and guideit into the rabbet, and the flattening tool is also used to flatten thejoint surface.

Compared with the conventional art, the fabricating method of thepresent invention has the following advantages: the method of combiningthe wax patterns of the present invention requires no medium to befilled between the joint surfaces of the two wax patterns, so the purewax liquid circulating system is maintained. Furthermore, during theprocess of combining the two wax patterns in the present invention, thewax pattern surface of the joint surface is flattened, so as to omit anadditional process for the joint surface after the combining process. Inthe present invention, after finishing the combining process, thesurfaces of the two wax patterns are tightly combined into a single waxpattern element, which is helpful for the subsequent process to beperformed quickly.

Further scope of applicability of the present invention will becomeapparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, itshould be understood that the detailed description and specificexamples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, aregiven by way of illustration only, since various changes andmodifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will becomeapparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will become more fully understood from thedetailed description given herein below for illustration only, whichthus is not limitative of the present invention, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is an exploded schematic stereogram of a first wax pattern and asecond wax pattern according to a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a combining method according to the preferredembodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 3A to 3D are schematic structural views of the combining method ofFIG. 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Preferred implementing methods of the present invention are illustratedbelow through the embodiment with reference to the accompanyingdrawings.

Firstly, refer to FIG. 1, FIG. 2, and FIGS. 3A to 3D, FIG. 1 is anexploded schematic stereogram of a first wax pattern and a second waxpattern according to an preferred embodiment of the present invention,FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a combining method according to the preferredembodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 3A to 3D are schematicstructural views of the combining method of the present invention. Thepresent invention may be applied for the precise casting of various golfclub heads, and the golf club iron head is taken as an example in thisembodiment. The present invention is suitable for disassembling the golfclub head into at least two wax patterns such as a body wax pattern anda panel wax pattern in advance, and next, the two separate wax patternsare molded respectively, and then, the two separate wax patterns arecombined into a single wax pattern. As for the specific steps, firstly,a first wax pattern 10 and a second wax pattern 20 are provided, whichare separately fabricated in advance, wherein the first wax pattern 10has a recess portion 11 for the second wax pattern 20 to be embeddedtherein; a flange 12 is formed on at least an edge 111 of the recessportion 11, such as the edge 111 of the top surface; and on the otheraspect, the second wax pattern 20 has a combining portion 21 with ashape corresponding to that of the recess portion 11, and a rabbet 22with a shape corresponding to that of the flange 12 is disposed at anopposite position corresponding to the flange 12 (Step S10). Then, thefirst wax pattern 10 and the second wax pattern 20 are combinedcorrespondingly, so as to embed the combining portion 21 on the secondwax pattern 20 into the recess portion 11(Step S20). Finally, the flange12 made of wax is heated to make the flange soften and thereby havingplasticity, wherein the heating method may be indirectly heating by wayof the heat radiation, or directly heating by using a heated flatteningtool 30 to contact the flange 12, that is, the flange 12 is guided intothe rabbet 22, and the heated flattening tool 30 is used to continuouslyheat the rabbet 22, such that the guided flange 12 is melted into awhole with the rabbet 22 made of the same material of wax, and thus, thewax of the joint surfaces of the first wax pattern 10 and the second waxpattern 20 are mutually melted, so as to form a tight combining statewithout any gap on the joint surface, and thereby combining into asingle wax pattern 40 (Step S30).

The combining portion 21 of the second wax pattern 20 of the presentinvention further includes all the shapes corresponding to that of therecess portion 11 of the first wax pattern 10, e.g., the steplike slot13 is disposed in the recess portion 11, so definitely the shape of thecombining portion 21 of the second wax pattern 20 includes the shapecorresponding to the steplike slot 13.

Furthermore, the shape of the cross-section of the flange 12 in thepresent invention may be a single shape such as triangle, rectangle,polygon, or arc, or any combination thereof.

The heating temperature of the flattening tool 30 in the presentinvention is within the range from 15° C. to 85° C. The shape of theflattening tool 30 is determined by a process that is performeddepending upon the shape of the cross-section of the joint positionbetween the first wax pattern 10 and the second wax pattern 20. Thepre-heating method of the flattening tool 30 is to use an open typeheating plate or a close type oven.

Of course, the first wax pattern in the present invention is a body waxpattern and the second wax pattern is a panel wax pattern, or the firstwax pattern is a panel wax pattern and the second wax pattern is a bodywax pattern

The invention being thus described, it will be obvious that the same maybe varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as adeparture from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all suchmodifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intendedto be included within the scope of the following claims.

1. A combing method of wax patterns for fabricating a golf club head,suitable for disassembling the golf club head into at least two waxpatterns in advance, then, molding the two wax patterns respectively,and then combining the two wax patterns into a single wax pattern,comprising: providing a prefabricated first wax pattern and aprefabricated second wax pattern, wherein the first wax pattern has arecess portion for the second wax pattern to be embedded into the recessportion; a flange is formed on at least an edge of the recess portion;the second wax pattern has a combining portion with a shapecorresponding to that of the recess portion; and a rabbet with a shapecorresponding to that of the flange is disposed at an opposite positioncorresponding to the flange; combining the first wax pattern with thesecond wax pattern correspondingly, and embedding the combining portioninto the recess portion; and raising the temperature of the flange tomake the flange soften, using a flattening tool to guide the flange intothe rabbet, and making the guided flange and the rabbet be melted intoone piece, thus the joint surfaces of the first wax pattern and thesecond wax pattern are combined tightly with no gaps and thereby forminginto a single wax pattern.
 2. The combining method as claimed in claim1, wherein the step of raising the temperature of the flange to make theflange soften is performed by using the flattening tool to heat andcontact the flange.
 3. The combining method as claimed in claim 2,wherein-the flattening tool is a flattening plate or a flattening rod.4. The combining method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the temperatureof the heated flattening tool is from 15° C. to 85° C.
 5. The combiningmethod as claimed in claim 2, wherein the pre-heating process of theflattening tool is performed by using an open type heating plate or aclose type oven that are used to adjust temperatures.
 6. The combiningmethod as claimed in claim 1, wherein the recess portion of the firstwax further comprises a steplike slot, and the shape of the combiningportion of the second wax pattern further corresponds to that of thesteplike slot.
 7. The combining method as claimed in claim 1, whereinthe shape of the cross-section of the flange is one selected from agroup consisting of triangle, rectangle, polygon, arc or any combinationthereof.
 8. The combining method as claimed in claim 1, wherein thefirst wax pattern is a body wax pattern and the second wax pattern is apanel wax pattern, or the first wax pattern is a panel wax pattern andthe second wax pattern is a body wax pattern.